The Changing Nature of Environmental History: A Interview with Joel A. Tarr

Abstract

When Joel Tarr edited a special issue of this journal on the environmental history of Pennsylvania more than ten years ago, he was already one of the field's most respected and influential thinkers. His research at the intersection of the history of cities, nature, and technology has influenced two generations of scholars, and a number of his former students have contributed essays to the present volume. During his more than forty years teaching at Carnegie Mellon University, Dr. Tarr has produced dozens of articles and essays as well as six monographs and edited volumes. In 2008 the Society for the History of Technology awarded him its highest award, the Leonardo da Vinci Medal, capping a career in which he won numerous other prizes for his scholarship and teaching. This degree of accomplishment is all the more remarkable considering that he earned his PhD in 1963, before urban history or environmental history even existed as distinct fields and the social history of technology was still in its infancy.